Up and Down with Maggie.

Such a funny night of sleep last night for me and Maggie. The weather is cooler these days. We've been leaving the window open and left a fan running while we slept. It makes for comfortable sleeping. Last night it was 68 degrees in the bedroom, so we were both very happy, sleepy dogs.

Maggie, however, is a restless sleeper. Or maybe I am the restless sleeper and she's just frequently woken up by my rolling and tumbling, in the night. Either way, I don't usually wake up until she's climbing out of bed, to go sleep on the couch. She makes a slow, clamber right over my back and ass and legs and then slowly jumps down off the bed. And I listen to her clip clap her way onto the couch. And then I go back to sleep...

I wake up again when she climbs back into bed with me. Same pathway, right over my back, over to the corner of the bed. I claimed the outside edge of the bed for myself. She gets the other side. I've even constructed a nest for her, in the pillows. She does two or three turns around, until her big, warm, furry backside is pressed against me and she snuffles off to sleep again.

Sometimes I wake up at night to hear her quietly snoring next to me, like an old woman. More of a raspy wheeze than an actual snore. It's adorable.

Last night, however, we broke from the pattern. Maggie was woken up by my shifting around in the bed, seeking out the cools spots on the mattress (and the underside of the pillow). She climbed over me again, only this time, I was laying on my back. I grabbed her up suddenly and pulled her up to me and held her on my belly and petted her for a while. I rubber her ears and her long sleek body. I kissed her on her soft, doggy nose and she nuzzled her snout against my cheek. I scratched her back slowly and gently and she seemed confused by all of the late night attention. I saw her head raising up, trying to figure out why she was woken up and loved up, all of the sudden. I released her and she crawled off of me and delicately jumped down off the bed and clip clapped her way onto the couch to sleep. I could hear her in the other room, sighing largely, a very happy dog.

I won't always have Maggie. Or maybe someday, she will lose me. But what value does a father/child, owner/pet relationship have, if it isn't expressed with the infrequent, moments of attention and love, freely given. She gives me attention and love all the time. It's nice to be able to return the favor to her, once and a while. While we still can.

That was my night.
How was yours?

Mr. B.